Proper Pronunciation Guide
wuss
[wʊs]
Tips:
- Pronounce the letter “u” as the short vowel /ʊ/ —like the vowel in the word “put.”
- Be sure to pronounce a very distinct, gradually expanding consonant glide /w/ before the vowel/ʊ/ —as in the words woman and would.
- Shorten this already short vowel /ʊ/ even further because it is followed by an unvoiced consonant.
Practice Sentence:
| When Bob panicked after accidentally cutting his finger and drawing blood, his girlfriend exclaimed, "Oh, don't be such a wuss!" |
Definition:
(noun) A person who is weak, timid, and easily frightened; a sissy; a wimp.
Notes:
The adjective “wussy” [
wʊ si] is used occasionally as when Frank Rich, for example, wrote in the New York Times about some people’s response to Senator Barack Obama’s vision of post-partisan inclusiveness: “Opponents who dismiss this as wussy naïveté do so at their own risk. They . . . lull themselves into underestimating Mr. Obama’s political killer instincts.” (The New York Times, Sunday, June 8, 2008, The Week In Review section, p.12.)